Micsocas? Enusdes | 


Issued as Occasion may Require by the | 


American Baptist Foreign Mission Society 
Ford Building Boston, Massachusetts 


Neulhao 


cA Story of the Great War 


By W. E. WITTER, D.D. 


esp 


‘* Several thousand natives in France 
from tribes in the Naga Hills and Garo 
Hills of Assam ... two thousand Nagas 
there . . . rendering an important service 
behind the lines of our fighting men.”’ 


O us who have lived among them 
and seen them in their savagery 
it seems incredible; while swift 

on the heels of that humanistic thought 
of incredibility there rushes in a whole 
battalion of memories jubilant with the 
shout, ‘‘ Certainly, just as we might 
have ‘expected, and there are more to 
follow and still more — men fearless of 
death who will laugh at danger, endure 
like heroes and die like saints, for into 
their mountain fastness He came and 
through the story told them of His 
3 . 


might to save, they came to accept Him 
as the Captain of their salvation. 

I wish I knew all the story of that 
brave Kuki from Manipur, the first of 
his tribe to become a Christian. How 
or where he first found Christ I do not 
know. But never, as long as we live, 
will: Mrs. Witter or I forget the moment 
when first our eyes fell on that seem- 
ingly most unpromising bit of humanity, 
panting with double pneumonia as he 
lay on the hard chang (bamboo bed) 
in that cheerless quarter of the old 
‘student lines ’’ of the Jorhat Christian 
Schools. It was our first Sabbath after- 
noon after arriving at Jorhat in March, 
1913. As the wind blew in upon the 
sick lad through the walls through 
which you could put your hands, what 
could you do, no matter how filthy the 
boy might be, and how alive with ver- 
min or how near the great change, but 
have him quickly removed to the bunga- 
low and placed in the room next your 
own sleeping room with an open door 
between? What had dirt or vermin to 
do with the question? Did not the 
Master always without exception “ lay 
His hand’’ on every leper whom He 
healed! Is it not enough that “ the 
disciple be as his Master! ”’ 

A native physician was called, and a 
house boy to watch the patient at night, 
give him his medicine regularly and re- 
port if necessary. We who could hear 
the breathing in the adjoining room slept 
with one eye open and ears alert as the 
wrestling with the ‘last enemy ’’ pro- 

2 


ceeded through weary days and nights. 

“The prayer of faith’’ and joyful 
ministry were rewarded. The boy was 
at last able to return to the cheerless 
‘“‘ Boys’ lines’’ and in time to resume 
his studies one by one. We learned 
that he spent some time in the Boys’ 
School at Kohima, and, being of a 
specially religious nature, had been ad- 
vised by Dr. Rivenburg to come to the 
Jorhat Christian Schools and give him- 
self especially to the studies best suited 
to prepare him to preach to his own 
tribesmen the Gospel which he had 
come to know and love with a passion 
rarely equaled in a convert so young. 
To us was granted the privilege of giv- 
ing special attention to the religious 
training of this strange lad, strange in 
looks and actions,, but with a light in his 
face which one could not mistake. He 
was a lad with a vision, yes with visions, 
to be wonderfully realized. 

Day after day as we sat together he 
would say, ‘‘Sahib, I saw Jesus last 
night and He said, ‘ Ngulhao, you must 
go, go and tell the thousands of your 
people that I can save them.’ Sahib, 
when he would say that, I could see my 
tribesmen, thousands of them all in the 
dark about me, listening eagerly to me 
as I told them of Jesus. O Sahib, I 
must go, I must go.’’ Then I told the 
boy, that while the Master was anxious 
for him to go and tell his people of the 
wonderful things He could do for them, 
any call from Jesus for service involves 
also a call to prepare for service, and that 


3 


I felt sure Jesus would wish him to re- 
main still longer at Jorhat so he could 
give more intelligently the Gospel mes- 
sage to his people. This comforted 
him for the time being, but usually only 
a few days would pass before he would 
tell me that Jesus was again urging him 
to hasten to his people in the far away 
mountains. 

At last he could endure the pressure 
upon his spirit no longer, and off he 
went. Several friends attached them- 
selves to him, but at once their lives 
were put in such peril that they had to 
hide in the jungle for several days with- 
out food, knowing that if they were 
caught by those enraged at the thought 
of the hated new religion being intro- 
duced among them, their heads would 
be displayed as trophies, while fiendish 
shouts re-echoing through the moun- 
tains would proclaim the bloody victory. 

In due time Negulhao returned to 
Jorhat, saddened at the attitude of his 
fellow villagers, but with his zeal in- 
creased. He implored the prayers of 
his fellow students and the missionaries 
for his people. We can never forget 
the intensity of those pleadings. Soon 
three Kuki men came to Jorhat, a dis- 
tance of 150 miles to ask Negulhao to 
return with them and preach. Having 
been tried in the fire and found faithful 
and fearless, at his next entry he found 
savage ears anointed and savage hearts 
open to receive the message. Converts 
in large numbers were won, and in Mani- 
pur and in Kohima, places far distant 


4 


from their own mountain fastnesses, 
they were gathered for baptism by the 
missionaries and native pastors. 

All the time Ngulhao was composing 
hymns in Kuki. By the summer of 
1916, he had two hundred hymns ready 
for publication, besides having bands of 
young Christian men and women trained 
to go about from village to village sing- 
ing the Gospel story and proclaiming 
with their lips and shining faces the 
power of that Gospel to transform the 
savage heart and make men new and 
gloriously happy. 

Then came the War, and the Govern- 
ment of India was asked to send thou- 
sands of the Hill men of Assam to the 
war fronts in France to work behind 
the trenches. Missionary William Pet- 
tigrew was asked to assist in recruiting 
two thousand, and went to the hills, 
glad to help in any way possible in 
this war for the supremacy of righteous- 
ness and world-brotherhood. He called 
Ngulhao to his camp and explained to 
him and another young Kuki evangelist 
what is involved in this world war. No 
sooner was the situation grasped by 
these young men than. both offered 
themselves for the trenches in France, 
and told the missionary they would see 
that Government had its full quota 
from the Kuki tribe. They hastened 
back to their fellow tribesmen, and soon 
returned with sixty young Christians 
who volunteered to go wherever the 
Government wished. The evangelists 
returned again to rally the full quota 


5 


from among the still non-Christian men 
of Kuki land. Soon these and other 
tribes started on their long journey to 
Calcutta, across India and on to France, 
to their tasks on the battlefields where 
they brave the perils of war and meet 
death, if need be. Those who go over 
the top trained to manipulate weapons 
of warfare are no more essential to the 
winning of the war than the weaponless 
but sturdy arms and muscular limbs 
and backs of those dark skinned brothers 
from far away Assam. 

Negulhao has left in the Kuki Hills a 
wife and baby boy. May he be re- 
turned in time to win thousands of his 
tribesmen to Christ. . 


Previous Numbers in This Series 


. His Father’s Place. 

. The Day’s Work. 

. A Night in a Jungle Village. 
. A Bean for Africa. 


—& W NHN 


OR additional literature or other infor- 
mation regarding the work of the Ameri- 
can Baptist Foreign Mission Society, write 
to any of the following: 
1. The District Secretary of your District. 


2. Department of Missionary Education, 23 East 
26th Street, New York City. 


3. Literature Department, Box 41, Boston, Mass. 


115-10M-4-10-1018. 


